Striping a Phillipson fiberglass

Active Member

I hate it when I typo in the header! My question is regarding stripping not striping, a fiberglass rod I've got a somewhat rare and great casting Phillipson 7-1/2' Master in the hard to find light or 5 weight taper but it's in really poor shape cosmetically. I'd like to strip it down to the glass and replace the cork, upgrade the seat and wrap new guides. Question, I've begun the stripping and as the pale yellow paint comes off the underlying glass is dark brick red. Do I need to varnish the bare glass or can I wrap the guides and safely fish the rod with bare glass?

Active Member

Ron, I remember reading that some early fiberglass rods would soften over time, due to moisture getting into the fibers as the surface paint wore down of got nicked. When they switched to epoxy resins and S=glass, the problem mostly went away. I'm not sure about the blanks Phillipson used. My recommendation is to not take any chances and paint or varnish the blank.